Are you an introvert or extrovert?

I think a lot of people look at founders, indie hackers, bootstrappers, creators who are making videos and on podcasts and doing lots of public speaking, and automatically assume that the majority of those folks are extroverted. But this recent conversation I had with Aaron Francis, Marie Poulin, and Brian Casel on the Panel Podcast, I think reveals that that's not necessarily true. Here's a question. How much do you guys all like attention?

What are we supposed to say?

Not very much? Is that correct answer?

My guess is Aaron and I like attention and Brian and Marie are not predisposed to it. So that's why I'm curious. But, yeah, how much how would you answer that question?

Do you

Marie, you go first. All attention's on you.

Yeah. Not comfortable with attention. When I

Same.

Was first doing this, the Notion Mastery course, it was Joel Hooks that was like, you gotta start a YouTube channel now. Like, this is a lightning in a bottle moment. You gotta start a YouTube channel.

And I

was like, oh, YouTube. Are you

kidding me? Knows the

whole world. For that. He knew exactly. Like, of course, it makes sense if you're doing software demo. Like, you need a video format.

Of course, it makes sense. So I was really resistant to the idea at first, but I committed to doing video every week for twelve weeks. And I like, the views were so fast, and the the list growth was like it grew my list, like, 10,000 people in a couple of weeks. And I was like, okay. I get it.

Like, YouTube is is the way. But it took a long time to even know, like and my voice was very quiet and soft. Like, I was very scared. Like, when I got asked to speak at MicroConf, was, like, shitting my pants. I was, like, sleepless nights for months.

Like, not a natural place. Yeah. But it's been a thing I've worked on over the last ten years consistently to just get comfortable sharing your ideas, sharing what works for you. So it's been a journey and I can do it now, but it's still a lot of lift to like, okay, gotta prep myself to do this YouTube. It takes a lot out of me.

It's not a natural process. Is

most of the friction stored? Get into it. Like, do you like it when a video gets a bunch of views and comments? Like, do you like that attention, or how does it feel for you?

I love feeling like it's had impact. Like, oh, man. Yes. Someone's like, thank you. That's exactly what I needed.

I'm like, yes. But it's not like, yeah.

Don't know how you guys think about this. I completely resonate with that. Like in in the real world, in real life, I'm the quietest person in the room and and also like speaking on stage at conferences is something I'm terrible at. Like seeing people live is I have a real problem with it. But being on a podcast with thousands of listeners or being on even like a live webinar or something like with thousands

You can't see all the eyeballs, right?

It's fine.

You know, I don't know if you think about this especially like I have a hard time when people I know, even my family and like friends who are not in our industry, when they like find my YouTube videos or even like see my my tweets and stuff or find my podcast. Like I don't want them to to tune into that stuff.

Look away. Don't look

at me.

Look at the

photos of my kids and and the vacation stuff, but like this is for our people. Yeah. And like I wish there was a total separation. I don't know if you guys think the same way.

We have

a severance chip for that if

you think. Exactly. Have you dealt with attention, Aaron? Because I like it but there are times where it can become, you know, there's even I have my limits so how do you deal with attention in general do you think?

Yeah, I don't mind the attention at all. I think there's a difference between when we get together with friends I don't feel like I need to be the center of attention or be like the funny guy. I'm very confident in being quiet or being the funny guy if the situation calls for it. But when I get on stage, I feel so comfortable. I feel like this is Can

you give me some

of that? Can I just do little little stuff? Awesome. I love it. Like being an emcee at a conference and having to just think on your toes, love it.

Going to a Wow. Wedding reception and giving a toast, you know, without really expecting you were gonna give a toast, love it. I think it's great.

Standing up

in front

of a bunch of people and like trying to corral the masses, love it. Think it's so fun. So those things I super duper love. But in terms of wanting to be the center of attention, I don't actually like that too much. I am in fact an introvert and would so much rather be alone.

I would just rather be by myself all the time. But when you know when duty calls I'm like hell yeah let's get on a stage man. This sounds great.

You know Justin to your question about like how do we feel with the results or the numbers or what we see after publishing something. I think it's like yeah, I get kind of excited when something I post gets a lot of views or likes or retweets or whatever. Like I think that's good but it's not so much about the attention. It's about something I created resonated with some other people. Yeah.

Whether that's a piece of software, whether it's an idea that I shared in a tweet or a song I wrote or something that like I created. Like I was excited about it because I created it. So somebody else feels the same. Like that's interesting to me. The audience numbers don't really matter.

But from a marketing standpoint, it's nice if it can be distributed, you know, somehow.

If you have time, I highly recommend you go and listen to the whole episode, panelpodcast.com/four. But I'd like to hear what you think. If you're a founder or a creator or business person who's making videos and making content, how would you answer that question? Do you consider yourself to be introverted or extroverted? And maybe also comment on, you know, what Aaron and Marie and Brian and myself said.

Do you assume that most folks are extroverted or introverted? Personally, I think I'm actually in the minority and that I consider myself to be an extrovert. Being in a social situation really energizes me. And it's almost actually one on one communication can be draining to me in the same way that it's reversed for introverts. So if you're listening to this podcast right now in your podcast player, in the show notes, there is a link where you can leave a comment on this episode and share your

thoughts.